New Jersey’s high school graduation rate rose slightly again last year to 87.5 percent statewide, according to data from the department of education.

Some 95,091 high school students graduated in June, and 4,452 who started four years earlier dropped out, officials told the Board of Education at its regular meeting Wednesday in Trenton. Another 5,681 students who began ninth grade in 2009 are still continuing their studies.

The 1 percent increase represents continued growth since new, federally mandated rules for calculating the rate were imposed in 2011.

"We believe the increase is significant," chief policy and external affairs officer Justin Barra said. "It is an actual increase that reflects the hard work of our districts."

Officials said the data is more accurate because of the federal government’s new rules, which require schools to track students over four years of high school and to verify students who leave the district or the state. Previously, schools divided the number of graduates by the number of students enrolled at the start of 12th grade.

Twenty-seven schools graduated 100 percent of their students, according to the state’s data. The rates in several large urban districts, including Jersey City and Trenton, remained level at about 67 percent and 48 percent, respectively, while Newark’s district-wide rate dropped 1 percent, to 67.7 percent.

Still, there were marked improvements in some Newark schools, including Central High School, which grew from 76.7 to 80.1 percent, and West Side, which saw its rate improve from 60.6 to 65.5 percent.

In Paterson, the four-year graduation rate for all district high schools was 72.1 percent, a jump of 5.7 percent from 2012’s 66.4 percent.

Superintendent Donnie Evans said the gains started in 2009, and mark a rise from 45 to 72.1 percent if calculated with the new formula.

"We are extremely pleased," Evans said. "We’ve been working very, very hard districtwide."

Evans said Paterson’s improvement is the result of several major changes, including a restructuring of the high schools to replace 2,220-student institutions with smaller communities of learning focused on an academic or vocational theme. The district’s eighth-grade students are able to chose the high school they want to attend, he said, and undergo a transcript review.

"We sit down with 99 percent of the students and families to determine whether they are on track and if not what they can do to get on track," he said.

The statewide data show real differences among student sub-groups, Barra said. For example, 77.1 percent of economically disadvantaged students graduated in four years, compared to 91.8 percent of non-economically disadvantaged students.

Students with limited English proficiency had the lowest rate, 70.5 percent, which dropped from 2012’s 73.1 percent.

About 76.4 percent of African-American students, 78.6 percent of Hispanic students and 95.9 percent of Asian students graduated in four years, compared to 93.1 percent of white students. There was growth in each of those categories.